Imagine if there were just one House of Congress. If it were so, then the death penalty would have been reimposed already—despite the uproar about how it sets us back by decades, how it violates religious norms, how it does not deter crime anyway and how dangerous a tool it would be for those who play god over the lives of others.
Fortunately, the railroading of the death penalty bill at the House of Representatives this week is not enough reason for its advocates to celebrate just yet. Senators have to take their turn in deliberating the bill and voting on it.
It’s good they don’t have a leader like their counterparts in the lower House. Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is dead-set on dealing with his colleagues who did not vote as he wished. He says he would strip House leaders who said no to the death measure of their plum posts.
That should be easy to check, especially since the list containing the names of those who said no has been making the rounds of social media, and people are actually looking at how their own district representatives voted.
By contrast, the senators’ constituents are the entire nation, and so more eyes will be trained on them as they vote for or against the reimposition of the capital punishment.
We have of course seen many times how the senators themselves play to the gallery, how they make spectacles of themselves when they conduct hearings obviously not in aid of legislation, grandstand, take down their enemies or simply utter nonsense.
This time, for this too-important piece of legislation, however, we wish they would shed theatrics and vote according to what they think and feel is right—assuming they are capable of doing so.
Yes they are politicians and must toe the line of their parties and political patrons. But politics is temporary; the consequences of their vote on the death penalty bill will outlast their current terms.
Yes they have their affiliations, but they have their own minds, too and must not be cowed by threats, real or imagined, should they vote a particular way.
Our senators have frustrated us so many times but here is a good opportunity to redeem themselves a little. No other consideration should determine their vote on this one—not perks, not loyalty—outside of their sense of right and wrong.